I should be a TV host

From the town of Troo, near Tours, France.

Wood-cut-like chateau

Gadling photos of the day!

In the last two weeks two of my photos have been named Gadling Photo of the Day! Gadling’s one of the biggest travel ‘blogs’ on the ‘internet’ so I’m pretty excited about this development. All the more reason to start trying to sell these things.

The New Global Student

Azure & I visiting 2/3 of the Frost family in Buenos Aires last year.

by Mike

Thaipusam is a Hindu festival in which revelers purify themselves through fasting & prayer. Some of the devout make shrines on platforms that are hooked into their skin and they carry them in a circuit to the temple while their family cheers them on. The only reason I have any idea this exists is that I accidentally stumbled onto a procession in Little India in Singapore – they had shut down one lane in either direction to allow the march, but cars still buzzed by.

There are literally thousands of other examples of how travel has educated me in ways that a traditional education simply never would have. I think of it as education by proximity and experience.

My cousin Maya Frost is doing her part to encourage this method of learning. She’s written a book called, “The New Global Student: Skip the SAT, Save Thousands on Tuition and Get a Truly International Education.”

She explains how to study abroad in a way that’s CHEAPER than paying tuition at home! Azure and I travel every winter for less money than it would cost to stay at home. We travelers know the tricks – and Maya’s put it in a book. If you’re a student at all interested in seeing the world, and you want to do it in a way that doesn’t break the bank, then you should check out her excellent book. Parents of students should check it out as well so they know what options are available for their kids internationally.

Don’t you want to be here?

Some town in SW Corsica.

Olive tree above Dolceacqua

by Mike

Little did I know at the time that this was the first of many many olive trees we’d take pictures of. This tree was on the walk down from the amazing howevermany course dinner high above Dolceacqua to which we had to hike… and from which we had to hike back. Drunk. We walked on stone walls that lined olive tree orchards that spanned the terraced hillsides.

It was interesting to cross the border from France to Italy and see an immediate difference. Physically, there was much less emphasis on aesthetic beauty, powerlines were all over the place and the hillsides were mostly terraced in this region (which was beautiful, but not natural). At the same time you cross the border and the people are much warmer and the food has different emphases as well… freshness rather than alchemy.

Cap Corse Sunset

On our way back from the brocciu making we stopped at this strange fake windmill that had the best view on the island. Well, I say that, but there were tons of great views there. The windmill had one of them.

When I picture Mediterranean islands, I usually imagine looking down at them from above, as if I’m floating above and getting to inspect the valleys and smell the trees on the wind… When we pulled to the top of a hill and saw this view I knew I’d have to take some time to experience it.

That’s one of the reasons I love night photography. When the shudder opens, you have nothing to do but be still and wait and watch. It’s a situation where taking it all in – really appreciating the scene – is automatic and easy. Night photography is also a little magic. The camera picks up light that you didn’t know was there in the first place.

Up on this ridge there was a stiff wind and there were old stones scattered down the hillside that had at one point been structures. There were wind farms on the hill and the moon was rising behind them. We could somehow see all the way down to L’Ile Rousse at night – it’s the collection of lights on the right side of the picture. That was the town we’d slept in the night before, hours away by scooter. But there it was, under our noses like we were floating above the island inspecting its coasts.

Snow on the olive farm

by Mike

Azure and I, picking olives, noticed that the sky was getting dark up the valley. We asked Margarite, “Is it going to rain?”
“No, it won’t rain,” she said.
We didn’t really believe her, so we kept working. But the darkness grew and we were startled to feel an icy wind flee down the valley in front of the cloud.

We looked up and saw that the darkness had crossed a ridge and was heading for us and whether it was rain, it was serious. Claude screamed orders to get the full olive caisses up and we scrambled to move our equipment inside, protected, and to get the olives out of the cold. Then it hit – snow rioted through the orchard and the temperature must have dropped 25 degrees.

There was a lot of confusion but we eventually got everything moved in and spent the rest of the day wide-eyed at the snow falling just 30 minutes from Nice.

Of course Margarite was right – no rain.

L’Ile Rousse plaza

We pulled into L’Ile Rousse (on the west coast of Corsica) late in the afternoon and immediately headed to the cute center of town. There were bunches of people playing petanque (bocci) in the main square, old men of course, and many just hanging out watching. That’s not our scooter.

We watched for a little while then walked down the two small streets that make up the centre ville and of course (of course) discovered nothing was open.

It’s an interesting little town.